The Hunt pt 2

Stalking over to the source of the scent Alice felt Jasmin drop off her back and watched as she jogged ahead of her

Not taking her eyes off her, the, for now, singular minded girl walked over to her and looked over her shoulder, something she normally wouldn't have been able to do due to their height difference, but thanks to fully shifting she now stood a few inches taller than her

"Here!" Jasmin whispered emotionlessly, pointing towards some scratches that were engraved onto the edge of the roof, a few feet from the edge of the north side "these scratches along with the slight, darkening of the concrete are from a rifle. When the shots were fired from the rifle, the stand left these marks due to the recoil"

"sO yOu gUesSing tHe WiNdoW beFoRe, As tHe moSt liKely sPot foR thE sNIper waS JUst bUllShit huh?" Alice remarked, her voice taking a mocking tone despite its demonic sound. Something she had noted previously was that this voice was likely a result of both of her personalities talking at once, combined

"I was… busy, the bullet trajectory was the last thing on my mind inside Canes bedroom" Jasmin countered

Deciding to ignore her words Alice knelt beside her, bending to get a smell of the ground, and the sent attached to it

The scent was extremely faint, likely due to being left in the open air for multiple days amongst the usual cacophony of smells in the city, but she was still able to get a few things out of it

Adult Male, heavy cologne, coffee, obviously gunpowder, salt, and a strong smell of ink

When she gave this information to Jasmin the girl went silent for a few moments before she began to think aloud

"Him being male and wearing cologne is relatively useless concerning information unless you can somehow recognize them amongst an entire crowd" she speculated "the same with gunpowder and salt is likely just from sweat, coffee is likely because he was staking out the place at night… ink, however!"

"Ink?" Alice repeated confused

"Yes, Ink!" Jasmin yelled triumphantly, before running off at a high speed, as Alice followed she explained as she ran "see in order for the scent of ink to last as long as it did and still be the most prominent scent he would have had to be practically covered in the stuff right?"

Nodding Alice agreed "Yes?" she was still unsure where this was going

Seeing her still struggle Jasmin continued "there are only a few places in this side of the city that would have enough ink in them to leave an imprint on a man's scent and I can only think of one that a hitman would have any reason to visit!" she paused as she used her tendrils to pull her to the roof of another building "in the southern sector of the city there is a small hidden arms dealer guild housed in an abandoned ink factory, that's where we start!"

********

Over the course of the next sixteen hours, the girls continued to hunt, they first found the arms dealers and "persuaded" them to hand over the list of clients that had bought rifles recently, before then killing the arms dealers themselves slowly

after all, It was partially their fault Cane got hurt

After that, it was a simple matter of finding the addresses and identity of every customer before cross-referencing it by those who would be willing, stupid, or desperate enough to try and kill a member of the Barlow family which was hard to do now that all of Jasmin's former informants had either been arrested or killed during her time in the Catacombs

That crossed off the 2 small-time crime bosses who bought rifles in bulk, the American bunker owner, multiple men working for terrorist cells, and the people who just wanted a gun without a license

And that left only one person, one Edwin Harrison

Small-time muscle with a drug addiction and two different alimony payments overdue, not only was in the right mindset but the girls both had a gut feeling, one that seemed to light their souls on fire with pure, feral rage

It was only a simple matter after that of finding his apartment, where Alice was able to confirm that this was the male scent AND cologne that she had smelt at the roof, and to only make things more certain they found a Rifle hidden behind a false backboard in his cupboard, missing seven bullets, a number of missing bullets that matched the number of holes IN CANES HOME AND CANE HIMSELF!

Seeing as he wasn't home Jasmin hopped onto his computer and checked his emails, thankfully he hadn't skipped town and appeared to have gone out to meet some friends at a pub

Finding said establishment took more time than it took them to get there, and a lot less time than it took for the girls to regain their composure as to not simply walk into the pub and slaughter everything inside'

No

He wasn't going to get a quick death like that

Soon the man they had spent so long searching for walked out of the building, his face slick with sweat and cheeks red indicating him being drunk

It took every fiber of Jasmin's Being to not simply walk up to him and rip his spine out through his throat and Alice nearly went insane as she had to hold her two sides from splitting apart and tearing both themselves and him apart

And as they followed him home broke the weak lock with their bare hands, destroying the only barrier between them and the man who had touched…HURT THEIR LOVE… Dark expressions and smiles took over their faces

Smiles that promised pain

Promised suffering

Promised vengeance